Chapter 9: A Lovers' Quarrel
Winter was marching down the corridor that led to Yang's quarters in the castle's keep. As distasteful as the duty that awaited her was, it was refreshing to have some clarity of purpose again. Especially after all the long weeks of confusion and indecision. If only she could get the bitter taste of regret out of her mouth.
Winter had her armor on under her tunic and her arming sword at her side. She even had her pouch with her extra equipment on her back plus a few other odds and ends that she always carried into battle with her. It was overkill given that she didn't expect to need any of it, but she intended to show Yang that she meant business. Or perhaps she was trying to convince herself of that.
Yang's door loomed ahead, but Winter wasn't intimidated by it anymore. She walked right up to it and barged into Yang's room.
Yang was inside her quarters as Winter had hoped. Yang turned to face her unexpected guest, looking surprised. But her face immediately lit up and she cheerfully said, "Winter!"
"Good afternoon, Princess Yang," Winter said, managing to keep her voice even and calm.
"I told you, you don't need to call me that anymore," Yang said as she walked closer to Winter. Then her eyes wandered down to Winter's waist. "Um…. What's with the sword?"
Winter ignored Yang's question. She said, "But you are a princess, are you not? The daughter of King Taiyang? Ruler of the Kingdom of Patch?"
"Yeah, that's right," Yang said.
"No. It is not," Winter declared. "You are a liar. And now both of us know it."
Yang's smile faded. She asked, "What are you talking about?"
"Patch is not a kingdom. It's a barony," Winter said, her anger starting to show. "It doesn't have a king. Much less a princess."
Winter saw alarm register on Yang's face. Then she saw the wheels begin to turn in Yang's head as her conniving mind no doubt tried to come up with something clever to say. Eventually, Yang gave Winter a nervous smile and said, "I guess you'll just have to call me baroness then."
"That's not what you call the daughter of a baron!" Winter spat out with venom in her voice.
Winter's hand came up and grasped the hilt of her sword. She said, "You've been playing me this whole time."
"No I haven't!" Yang said. "I mean I was at first, but…"
"No! No more deceit! No more honeyed words!" Winter said. She drew her sword and pointed it at Yang. "You will tell me who you really are and why you are here!"
Yang stared at Winter's sword with a look of disappointment on her face. She turned her back to Winter and walked a few steps away. She said, "Alright. I'll tell you everything you want to know and more. But first you've got to answer one little question of mine."
"And that is?" Winter asked.
"Are you wearing that fancy magical armor of yours?" Yang asked.
"Yes," Winter said. Then her eyes narrowed, and she asked, "Why?"
Yang's back was still to Winter, but Winter heard her take in a deep breath.
The whole room suddenly burst into a raging inferno as fire went rushing out from where Yang was standing and rapidly filled every corner of the space. Panic shot through Winter. Her armor kept her safe for the moment, but her lungs were already beginning to ache as the fire rapidly subsumed all of the oxygen in the room.
A very sensible part of Winter's brain was shouting at her to flee whatever was happening, but choking smoke and blinding flames had caused her to lose all sense of direction and orientation. She lurched forward anyway, hoping to locate the door or some other means of escape. What she found was a barrier about the height of her waist. She scrambled over it as quickly as she could, already desperate for air.
Suddenly, Winter was outside with nothing beneath her feet. She plummeted downward. Fortunately, her fall was broken by a canvas awning. Unfortunately, her body started rolling down the awning's steep incline, and she slipped off it and crashed to the ground below.
Disoriented but unharmed, Winter sucked in a lungful of sweet, cool air. She clambered to her feet and turned about this way and that, still stupefied by whatever had just happened. She quickly realized she was in the castle's courtyard. A few of the castle's other residents were passing through, going about their daily business, but several of them had stopped to point and gawk at something that was happening behind and above Winter.
Winter turned around and lifted her head. She saw flames shooting out of a window up on the keep's second story. It was the window that looked into Yang's quarters. Things were finally starting to make at least some sense to Winter. She must have stumbled out of the window in her blind panic. It was fortunate that an awning had been there to catch her. But where had the fire come from in the first place?
A section of wall next to the burning window suddenly shuddered as if something inside had struck it with great force. The wall shook again, and this time a few of its heavy stones came loose and fell. One even tumbled down the same awning that had caught Winter and landed at her feet with a thud.
Winter started to take a few fearful steps backward when the wall suddenly burst outward, flinging even more heavy stones through the air. Screams filled the courtyard, and the castle's denizens began running for safety.
Winter scrambled backward to avoid getting hit by the spray of broken masonry. Once the commotion had passed, she looked up again and saw that there was a new hole in the wall. It was about the size of a large doorway and looked like a portal to some infernal realm. Nothing could be seen inside except for fire and smoke, but then a figure slunk into view.
The figure crouched low and then leaped out of the room and high into the air. Winter's mouth hung open as the figure sailed over her head. She turned to follow them and watched dumbstruck as they landed in the courtyard solidly on their feet. Winter could see now that the figure was Yang. She appeared to be completely unharmed, although her dress was burning as intensely as the room had been. It gave her the appearance of being literally clothed in flame.
"What are you?" Winter asked, both horrified and awestruck.
Yang gave Winter an evil smile. She lifted one of her hands with her fingers curled. Then she uncurled them one by one, and they promptly transformed into scaly claws. She said, "I guess you don't know everything about dragons yet. Do you, dragon slayer?"
Yang's whole body suddenly shuddered and stretched. What was left of her dress was ripped to shreds as wings sprouted from her back and lean muscle grew on her body. Her height doubled and then doubled again as her human form contorted itself into something more reptilian. Then Yang's forelegs, which her arms had become, crashed down onto the ground, making the whole courtyard shake. In place of Yang the human was a dragon that lifted its head high and let out a thunderous roar.
Winter was in absolute awe. The dragon standing before her was the most magnificent creature she had ever seen. It was at least twice the size of the red-colored dragon she'd fought weeks ago, and its golden scales glisten beautifully in the afternoon sun. It moved with supreme grace, and its form was the absolute pinnacle of lethal perfection.
The dragon focused its lilac, cat-like eyes on Winter, and the horrifying reality of the situation caught up with her. Exactly two thoughts went through her head. The first was that she was going to die. The second was that she wasn't going to die without a fight.
Winter gripped her sword tightly. Then she charged.
The dragon suddenly swiped at Winter with alarming speed. She dodged out of the way, but it was a near thing. Massive claws whooshed past her close enough for her to feel the air moving. She wasn't given a reprieve either as the dragon's tail came hurtling toward her like a whip. Winter ducked, causing the dragon to miss, but the deafening crack that split the air just above her head made her ears ache.
Winter felt rather than saw what was coming next. Without even looking, she spun away. Sure enough, the dragon's forefoot slammed down on the ground exactly where she'd been standing. But the dragon had overcommitted, and Winter saw an opening.
Winter charged forward again. Her strategy was brutally simple. She would strike to cause as much damage as she could every chance she had. Without any time to prepare for this fight, it was about the only thing she could do. She sprinted directly for the dragon's knee and thrust her blade into a gap between the dragon's scales, just like she had when she'd fought the red dragon. However, this dragon didn't howl in pain. Its only reaction was to shove Winter back with a shrug of the very leg that she'd just stabbed.
Winter's hand slipped off her sword's hilt as she was effortlessly brushed aside. She almost tripped over her own feet, but she managed to keep herself upright as she stumbled backward. She frantically searched for her lost sword and quickly located it. It was still lodged in the dragon's knee.
The dragon didn't look very concerned about the length of sharpened steel protruding from its body. It casually raised its forefoot and flicked the sword away with its claw like a human might flick away a small thorn protruding from their skin.
Winter watched in despair as her sword spun through the air, flying farther away from her. The weapon collided with the castle wall behind the dragon and let out a dull clang as it fell to the ground.
A low rumbling sound came from the dragon. It took Winter a moment to realize she was being laughed at. The dragon said, "Nice try. But you're not fighting my kid sister anymore. I'm a real dragon."
This was the first time Winter had ever heard a dragon speak, and its voice, although much, much deeper, was unmistakably Yang's. The dragon's mannerisms and expressions, such as they translated from a human form to a draconic one, were unmistakably Yang's. Winter's mind was finally forced to grapple with the fact that this creature, this beast, was Yang. It, or rather she, was not some feral animal but a person who Winter had come to know and care for. The implications were staggering. But if there was any solace for Winter, it was that she likely wouldn't have to worry about them for long.
Yang took a few menacing steps toward Winter when suddenly a trio of arrows came whizzing into the courtyard. They plinked harmlessly off of Yang's armored scales, but they were quickly followed by more.
Both Yang and Winter turned their heads and saw several archers up on the castle's ramparts firing at Yang as rapidly as they could. Winter also noticed that one of the many trebuchets that topped most of the castle's towers was slowly being spun around to aim inward rather than outward. Unfortunately, it seemed that Yang had noticed too.
"Hold on a second," Yang said. She started bounding away from Winter. Then she unfurled her wings and effortlessly took to the sky.
As breathtaking as the sight of Yang soaring into the air was for Winter, she didn't let herself get distracted. She broke into a sprint and ran for her sword, all the while keeping one eye on Yang.
Yang flew directly for the trebuchet that was being aimed at her and plowed right through it. Its wooden frame broke against her body like the timbers were made of toothpicks, and the siege engine collapsed into a pile of splintered wood.
The archers continued to fire at Yang. Many of the arrows were missing now that she was a moving target, and most of those that did hit just bounced off her hide. One or two did manage to lodge themselves in between her scales, but she hardly seemed to notice.
Winter finally reached her sword. She snatched it from off the ground and looked up again to figure out where she was relative to Yang. She saw Yang fly low over the ramparts with flames licking at the edges of her mouth. Then she heard the panicked shouts of the archers and caught sight of them running for the cover of the towers.
Yang looped around and made another pass at the ramparts. This time she unleashed her fiery breath, hosing down the top of the castle walls with a deadly inferno. By some miracle, it looked to Winter that all of the archers had managed to escape in time. It was fortunate that Yang had chosen not to breathe fire on her first pass across the walls. However, with the ramparts ablaze, no one would be taking any more shots at her any time soon.
Yang winged over in the air and started heading directly for Winter. However, Winter finally knew exactly what to do. Rather than run, she reached into her pouch, thankful she'd decided to grab it along with her armor, and pulled out a bola.
Winter began to spin the bola above her head as Yang rapidly closed the distance. She knew she would only get one shot at this, so she would have to make it count. She held her ground and waited for the perfect moment.
Yang swooped in low, and Winter finally released her bola. Her aim was perfect, and the tethered weights went flying toward one of Yang's wings. However, at the last moment, Yang tucked her wings in against her body and went into a sharp dive. The bola flew harmlessly above her, and Winter's eyes opened wide in terror when she realized that a hundred or more tons of dragon were about to crash down on her like an avalanche. She took off running faster than she ever had in her life.
Yang smashed into the ground hard enough to make the castle's walls shake. She landed on all four legs and her belly, and thanks to her momentum, she skidded across the courtyard like it was a frozen lake, kicking up a cloud of dirt and dust.
Winter had managed to get clear, but only just. Yang's skid had carried her in Winter's direction, and she was still practically on top of her. Yang got to her feet and continued to chase after Winter. Her booming footfalls spurred Winter into sprinting even faster, but she was rapidly running out of space. One of the castle's towers was looming in front of her, but unlike the archers, she couldn't take refuge in it as it didn't have an entrance on the ground level.
Winter glanced over her shoulder just in time to see Yang's claws come rushing toward her. She tucked into a roll, causing Yang's claws to smash into the castle's tower rather than Winter's body. There was a huge crashing sound as Yang's forefoot punched straight through the tower's side and got lodged in the masonry.
Seeing another opportunity, Winter reversed direction immediately. She leaped on top of Yang's foreleg and started running up it. She knew perfectly well how preposterous what she was doing was—and how precarious of a position it put her in—but if she could manage to get to Yang's eyes, wings, or some other vulnerable spot, maybe she could finally do some real damage.
Unfortunately, Winter wasn't fast enough. Yang yanked her forefoot free of the tower, sending more debris scattering across the courtyard. The sudden motion caused Winter to lose her footing, and she slipped and fell.
Winter's back hit the ground hard. Air was forced out of her lungs, and she was left gasping for a moment. But then she spotted Yang's open mouth plunging toward her. Yang clearly intended to swallow her whole.
The sight of razor-sharp teeth ready to rend her body apart was all the motivation Winter needed to get moving again. She scrambled backward, managing to get to her feet. She could feel Yang's breath on her back, but the freshly-made hole in the side of the tower gave her an avenue of escape. She was able to reach the tower before Yang's deadly maw caught up with her, and she dove inside. A second later she both heard and saw the structure shake. No doubt Yang's head had crashed into it. Winter hoped it had hurt.
Winter doubled over for a moment, panting for breath. Despite how hard she'd been exerting herself she had precious little to show for it. This was a nightmare. The first rule of dragon slaying was to never fight a dragon on its own terms. Unfortunately, that was exactly what was happening. At least for the moment Winter had a bit of a reprieve. Hopefully the tower was fortified enough to hold Yang off for long enough for Winter to actually come up with a proper strategy.
Yang's massive forefoot slowly squeezed in through the hole in the tower. Her claws raked the ground as she pulled them back out, tilling up the stone and dirt like the world's most monstrous plow. Winter heard Yang say, "What is it with you and playing hard to get?"
Winter did her best to ignore Yang, as difficult as that was. She didn't want to waste any brainpower engaging in witty banter with a dragon of all things. Ideas were already whizzing through her head at lightning speed. She was a dragon slayer, and she vowed to find a way to triumph today, as impossible as that seemed. But just when she was beginning to form an actual plan, she heard a sound that utterly ruined all of her tactical calculations.
Outside the tower, orders were being barked out, accompanied by the sound of marching feet. Winter couldn't make out exactly what was being said, but she knew what it must mean. Her fears were all but confirmed when she peeked through the hole and spied Yang turning away from the tower.
"No. No!" Winter said. She ran out of the tower and back into the courtyard. Yang had turned to face the other direction, and on the other side of her from Winter was a formation of the castle's guards, all armed with spears and being led by Captain Elm.
"Make ready!" Elm ordered, clearly preparing her formation to attack.
"Captain!" Winter shouted. She ran past Yang and toward Elm, heedless of the danger.
Yang, for her part, looked nonchalant about the whole situation.
"Captain!" Winter shouted again as she got closer. "Stand down!"
"Dame Schnee?" Elm asked in surprise.
Winter finally reached Elm. She said, "Captain, get your guards out of here immediately! This is not your fight!"
"This is what we've been preparing for! Ma'am!" Elm said.
"You've been preparing to do nothing more than get yourselves killed!" Winter said.
Yang said, "You should listen to her, Captain."
Winter wheeled around and pointed her sword at Yang. She shouted, "You stay out of this!"
Yang lifted her wings once, a gesture that approximated shrugging her shoulders.
Winter didn't know what to do. The situation had become untenable. But she would not give up. She had sworn to protect people, even at the cost of her own life.
An idea suddenly came to Winter. She said to Elm, "This dragon's feud is with me. Even if she manages to defeat me, she has promised to leave peacefully afterward."
Elm looked skeptical. She said, "You can't be serious."
"I am very serious," Winter said. "This is my duty, Captain. Your duty is to guard the residents of this castle. Go. Protect the princess, the queen, and the king. See that no harm comes to them. I will deal with the dragon."
Elm did not look pleased. But after a moment's deliberation, she signaled to her guards and said, "To the royal family! We must keep them safe!"
The order was echoed by several of Elm's lieutenants, and the formation started breaking up as the guards headed back into the keep.
Elm gave Winter a stern look. Then she said, "Good luck, ma'am."
Winter watched Elm retreat with her fellow guards. Then she turned back to Yang and started marching toward her.
"At last. Just the two of us," Yang said mockingly.
"I meant what I said." Winter stopped and pointed her sword at Yang again. "If you manage to defeat me—"
"If?" Yang asked.
"If!" Winter insisted. "Then you leave here immediately! And never return!"
"There you go again," Yang said. "Always acting all noble and selfless."
"Ridicule me if you must," Winter said. "But if by my life or death I can prevent you from harming even one more innocent, then I will."
Yang chuckled. It sounded sinister in her draconic voice. She began to slowly pace in a wide circle around the courtyard. Winter matched Yang's movement, keeping her at a constant distance. Although it took her considerably more steps given their size difference.
Yang said, "You've always had some real funny ideas about me. I guess I should be flattered you think I'm some kind of murder machine. But I'll bet you've killed more dragons than I've killed humans."
"I very much doubt that," Winter said.
"Let's find out then," Yang said. "How many dragons have you killed, dragon slayer?"
"Four," Winter said defiantly.
Yang stopped pacing and paused. She scratched the ground a few times with her claws like she was counting. Then she said, "Huh. I guess it's a tie."
"You've only killed four humans?!" Winter exclaimed.
"Yup," Yang said. "And despite what you people seem to think, I only ate one of them. It was kind of an accident, and I'm never doing that again. Human meat tastes terrible! It's like the stringiest, saltiest jerky marinated in anxiety. Bleh!"
"I don't believe you!" Winter said. "There's no way you've killed so few!"
"Believe me or not, I don't really care," Yang said.
"Well then," Winter said. "If your record really is as spotless as you claim, you'll have no problem agreeing to my terms."
"Sure. Why not," Yang said. "It'd be way too much work to fight everyone here anyway."
"Then neither one of us has any reason to hold back," Winter said. "So hit me with your best shot!"
In response, Yang suddenly spat out a ball of flame. It happened so quickly that Winter didn't have a chance to react. Her armor protected her from the searing heat as the fireball connected, but the force of the blast knocked her off her feet and sent her tumbling across the courtyard.
Winter rolled over and over several times before she finally came to a stop on her stomach. Somehow she'd managed to hold onto her sword, but it wasn't going to do her much good lying down. She put her free hand on the ground and pushed herself partway up. That was when she saw Yang looming over her, rearing up on her hind legs and taking a deep breath.
"Oh—" Winter managed to say before a massive pillar of fire crashed down on her.
Winter's body and head were slammed back into the ground. She felt like the weight of the world was pressing down on her. She even felt her armor begin to heat up slightly. She'd never had cause to wonder if its magic had limits, but now she feared it might.
Winter's hand slowly slid its way toward her pouch. She reached into it and took a firm grip on one of the iron-clad bombs inside. Then she gathered her strength and pushed with all her might against the pressure bearing down on her. Inch by inch she rose to her feet.
Scalding flames surrounded Winter on all sides, threatening to cook her alive. But she put them out of her mind and focused on what she was about to do. Winter let out a battle cry and lunged forward, out of the fire. Free and feeling as light as a feather now, she spun in place and used the momentum to lob her bomb directly at Yang's mouth. Her aim was true, and she watched anxiously as the bomb rushed toward its target.
The flames spewing from Yang's mouth suddenly stopped. Then her forefoot moved with astonishing precision and batted the unlit bomb out of the air. Winter watched transfixed as the bomb fell back to the ground, bounced a few times, and rolled until it was practically at her feet. Then she heard the sound of Yang taking another breath.
Panic hit Winter when she realized what was about to happen. She scrambled in a mad dash to get away. It was then that she noticed she'd ended up back at the tower that Yang had knocked a hole into earlier. So she raced to take refuge inside it for a second time.
Winter rushed through the gap in the tower and swerved to take cover behind the unbroken portion of its walls. An instant later, she heard the bomb outside explode. Then there was silence.
A few moments passed as Winter stood there. When nothing more happened, she slowly backed away from the edge of the tower. She fixed her gaze on the hole she'd run in through and held her sword at the ready. But she saw nothing outside. She briefly wondered if Yang had somehow gotten caught in the blast and inadvertently wounded herself. However, Winter quickly dismissed the idea as wishful thinking. Yang was still out there, and she was waiting for something.
Winter took a cautious step forward when suddenly the whole side of the tower burst inward. Yang's body smashed through the heavy stones like they were nothing. The staircase that spiraled up the perimeter of the tower began to collapse, sending debris raining down on Winter. Winter raised her hands in a feeble attempt to protect herself, but then something else hit her from the side and bowled her off her feet. Dust filled the air, and a great weight slammed down on Winter.
Completely blinded by the cloud of dust, Winter sputtered and coughed. She tried to get back to her feet but found she couldn't move. She knew she must be pinned under the rubble which meant she had little hope of escape.
The air eventually began to clear. That was when Winter saw that she wasn't held in place by some great mass of stone at all. It was Yang's forefoot that was pressed down on top of her. Yang's body was squeezed partway into the tower along with one of her forelegs. There was so little space to accommodate her that it was amazing how much of her had fit. Winter might have found it comical had the situation not been so dire.
Yang's forefoot had Winter completely trapped, although it had also likely saved her from being crushed to death by falling masonry. Winter's head was resting in between two of Yang's claws, and one of her arms was free. Her other arm was pinned helplessly to her side, and it was anyone's guess where her sword had gone.
Winter tried to push Yang's forefoot off of her and attempted to pull at Yang's claw with her free hand. When that did less than nothing, she tried unsuccessfully to wriggle her way out.
"Really?" Yang asked, sounding bemused.
"This isn't over yet!" Winter said.
"Do you seriously think you still have a chance?" Yang asked.
Winter's eyes darted back and forth, looking for something, anything, she could use to her advantage. Yang had done a number on the tower. The structure was in bad shape and was making some worrying noises. Winter suspected Yang's body, wedged in as tightly as it was, was the only thing propping the tower up. The tower's stairs had been completely destroyed, and a hole had even opened up in the ceiling due to all the shifting weight in the structure below. That was when Winter spotted it. The trebuchet mounted on the tower's roof, fortunately not the same one that Yang had destroyed earlier, was perched precariously halfway over the new hole in the ceiling. Even with Yang's head blocking most of the view, Winter could still see the trebuchet's frame teetering back and forth, dancing on a knife-edge.
Winter finally had a plan. It was an absolutely insane one, but what other kind would suffice at this point? She said, "I have more than a chance. Because I know your weakness."
"Really…" Yang said. She lowered her long neck, carefully maneuvering her head in the confined space and bringing it closer to Winter's. "Do tell."
Winter flicked back her free hand, causing a hidden dagger to pop out of her sleeve. She flipped it around and thrust with all her might, jabbing the blade deep into the gap where Yang's claw met her skin.
Yang reared back, roaring in pain. Her body, still jammed into the tower, smashed against the stone surrounding it, causing further damage, and her forefoot reflexively lifted off of Winter.
Finally able to move again, Winter sprang to her feet. She quickly grabbed a stone off the ground that was about the size of her fist and wound up to throw it.
Yang bellowed, "That HURT you little—!"
Winter threw her stone as hard as she could. It went sailing almost straight up, shooting past Yang's head in the narrow gap between it and the tower's crumbling walls.
"Uh…you missed," Yang said, sounding confused.
"No. I did not," Winter said.
Yang's eyes narrowed. She cautiously looked up. The stone Winter had thrown had connected with the trebuchet up on the top of the tower. It had barely hit with any force at all, but it had been enough. The massive siege engine was already tilting a few extra degrees downward and picking up speed.
Yang had just enough time to look back down at Winter with something dangerously close to fear on her beastly face.
"Checkmate," Winter said.
The trebuchet finally teetered over the edge. Its absolutely massive counterweight, consisting of tons upon tons of heavy stone, slammed directly into the top of Yang's head. Her tongue actually shot out of her mouth, and her eyes bulged from the raw force of the impact. The heavy timbers of the trebuchet's frame smashed into Yang a moment later. Each weighed more than enough to crush a human flat, but they were almost an afterthought in this case.
Stunned and disoriented, Yang blindly tried to pull her body out of the tower, causing even larger sections of its walls to start breaking apart. Winter realized she needed to get out of there right now. The whole structure was about to collapse.
Winter ran for the hole in the tower's side, weaving her way past Yang's legs. She didn't stop once she was out in the courtyard. She needed to get clear.
Yang finally managed to extract herself from the tower which immediately began to crumble under its own weight. She staggered around like she was drunk. But then she spread her wings and began flapping them mightily.
Yang's wings sent powerful gusts of wind sweeping through the courtyard. Winter had to plant her feet to keep from getting knocked over. She watched as Yang took to the sky. However, Yang was about as graceful on her wings right now as she had been on her feet. Rather than smoothly soaring into the air, she lurched this way and that and ended up colliding with a section of the castle's wall.
Yang's whole body tilted at an odd angle from the impact, and from there she had no hope of recovery. She crashed back down into the courtyard, shaking the ground like an earthquake, and wound up sprawled out on her back.
Winter stood there as an uncanny stillness settled over the castle. She was breathing heavily. Her whole body ached. And her blood was seeping out of several small cuts. The scene before her was positively unreal. A pile of rubble sat where one of the castle's towers had been moments before, and a massive dragon was splayed out in the courtyard. Winter had witnessed it come about, and even she was having trouble believing what she was seeing.
Winter shook her head clear. This wasn't over. Yang was down, but Winter needed to finish the job. She tramped over to Yang, teetering a bit on her feet from exhaustion.
"Your weakness," Winter said to Yang as she closed the distance between them. "Is arrogance!"
Yang didn't respond, but Winter knew she was still alive. She could see Yang's chest rising and falling as she drew in breath.
Winter was still holding her dagger. She flipped its blade back around and walked up to Yang's neck. Then she placed the tip of her dagger right in between a pair of Yang's scales.
Winter stood there, still as a statue. She knew what she needed to do. This was her duty. She had felled a dragon, and now it must be slain. But this wasn't just any dragon. It was Yang. It was Winter's friend. It was her lover. Yang was still the same beautiful, infuriating person she'd always been. And that was the real crux of it. Yang was a person. Dragons could be people. The full weight of that finally hit Winter.
Winter's hand began to tremble. She brought up her other hand to steady her dagger. This was an impossible dilemma. Her duty and her purpose were predicated on things that just weren't true. And yet what was she without them?
Movement in her periphery suddenly caught Winter's attention. She turned her head and saw Yang's forefoot ever so slowly start to rise. Yang's claws curled up until only one remained outstretched. It almost looked like she was pointing at something behind Winter. Winter turned her head a little farther, and for the briefest of moments, she saw Yang's tail rushing toward her.
There was a horrible cracking sound as Yang's tail collided with Winter's nose at high speed. Winter suddenly had the sensation of being completely weightless and saw nothing but the blue of the sky. Then she collided with the ground. It knocked what little sense she still had out of her and left her only vaguely aware of her body tumbling across the courtyard like a rag doll.
After a moment or two, Winter came to her senses again and sucked in a sharp breath. She had wound up flat on her back, which was good since the whole front of her face was radiating pain. Her dagger was gone—she'd most likely dropped it during her impromptu flight—and she could taste blood at the corners of her mouth.
If Winter could have seen herself she would have been appalled at her appearance. Her hair had come loose from its bun and was brown from all the dust and dirt in it. Blood was pouring from her nose and spilling onto her tunic which was already covered in mud and sweat. She looked atrocious by just about anyone's standard, although perhaps a reasonable person might have forgiven her appearance given what she'd just been through.
Winter slowly lifted a trembling hand and touched her nose. She immediately regretted it as intense pain shot through her. Her hand reflexively pulled back. There was no doubt that her nose was broken. She decided to worry about that later. She started to sit up but instantly collapsed back down to the ground as an even more intense pain made her vision go blurry. It appeared she had a broken rib too. She had no idea when that had happened. She'd been swimming in so much adrenaline during the fight that she must not have noticed.
A low cackling sound suddenly rose up. Winter tilted her head as far forward as she could. She saw that Yang was still sprawled out on her back, but she was laughing about something.
"What's so funny?" Winter asked.
"Made you look," Yang said before succumbing to another fit of laughter. "I can't…I can't believe you fell for that!"
Winter huffed indignantly. She thought she ought to be white-hot with rage. But Yang's laughter was contagious, and the absurdity of the situation was getting to her. She started laughing too. That was until her body screamed in pain again.
"Oh…" Winter quietly wheezed.
"That was incredible," Yang said, sounding immensely satisfied. "Best fight of my life. I don't think anyone's ever come that close to beating me."
"I did beat you," Winter said.
There was a pause. Then Yang said, "Excuse you?"
"I may have failed to kill you thanks to my own stupidity," Winter said. "But I did beat you. You're lying on the ground just as helpless as I am to defend yourself."
Yang's only response was silence.
Worried, Winter very slowly pushed herself upward, managing to prop herself up on one elbow. She saw Yang staring at her.
Yang's body suddenly began to shift and shrink. And right before Winter's eyes, she transformed back into her human guise. Then she got to her feet. It clearly took her a bit more effort than usual, but not that much more.
Yang looked an absolute sight. She was covered in mud and dirt from head to toe. The top of her head was still bleeding from where the trebuchet had landed on her, but her blood was not like human blood. It was about the color and consistency of hot tar. Half of her hair was matted to her head thanks to her open wound, and the rest of it was just as muddy and dirty as her body was.
Yang slowly walked toward Winter. As she got close, Winter could see that her transformation was incomplete. There were still claws on the ends of her fingers. Her teeth were jagged and sharp. Her ears were pointed and ridged. There were patches of scales on her body here and there. And her eyes still had cat-like pupils.
Yang walked right up to Winter, looking absolutely menacing. She said in a low but human voice, "Are you sure about that?"
Winter felt short of breath, but not because of her injury. She realized now that her life was in just as much danger as it had been a few minutes ago. But there was something about Yang's primal, disheveled appearance, her threatening aura, and her domineering tone that Winter found disturbingly enticing.
Yang blinked, and in that instant all of her monstrous features disappeared. Looking fully human again, she leaned in close to Winter and asked, "Are you as turned on as I am right now?"
Winter scoffed as all the tension in the air fled. She asked, "Must that be all you think about?"
Yang laughed. She held out her hand and said, "Come on. Let's—"
Suddenly, a thick metal collar snapped around Yang's neck. She let out a gagging sound as she was dragged backward.
"What!?" Winter exclaimed. She struggled to sit up, frantic to see what had happened.
Winter managed to just about get into a sitting position despite the debilitating pain. She saw that the metal collar that had been hooked around Yang's neck had a hefty oaken pole attached to the back of it. Six very burly guards were pulling on it with all their might, and they were slowly dragging Yang away. Yang tried to transform back into her true self a few times, but every time she did the collar, which looked to be almost two inches thick, threatened to choke the life out of her.
Yang clawed at the collar and started shouting in a language that Winter had never heard before. But she didn't need to understand the words to know that Yang was spewing out curses so vile they would have made the most irreverent of sailors turn away in shame.
"No…. Wait…" Winter said weakly. She tried to get to her feet but only ended up collapsing back to the ground.
Yang's heels were literally digging ruts into the ground as she resisted her captors, but she was still being dragged away from Winter inch by inch.
"Very good," a voice said. The man who it belonged to walked out from behind the guards. It was Lord Ironwood.
Ironwood said, "Make sure not to stand in front of her unless you want to be burned to death."
"L…lord…" Winter wheezed. The pain was starting to get to her.
Ironwood walked toward Winter, making sure to give Yang a wide berth. He knelt down next to her and said, "Well done, Dame Schnee. I knew together we could finally capture this beast. Thanks to you, I'll no longer have to carry a stain on my honor. And who can even imagine what treasures await us."
"But…" Winter gasped.
Ironwood stood and signaled to someone. "Over here! Dame Schnee needs to be brought to the healer immediately."
"No…" Winter said, but her voice was barely a whisper. Her vision was going dark.
Just before unconsciousness claimed Winter, one final word escaped her lips. "Yang…."
Author's Note: I have been waiting so long to get to this chapter. It wasn't what originally inspired the story, but it quickly became one of the main reasons I wanted to write it.
And now that Yang's big secret is out, I can say that it was very interesting to me the subtle changes being a dragon made to her personality. It was nothing I ever consciously planned, but the differences were there right from the start. It does make sense that being able to turn into a gargantuan fire-breathing lizard would change how you interact with the world.
Unrelated, but I spent so much time trying to figure out what to call Yang's "hands" when she was in dragon form! They're not really hands, but they're not quite feet. And calling them "claws" didn't seem to work in every instance. Eventually, I went with "forefeet". I think it worked out okay.
As always, I welcome constructive criticism. Please feel free to leave a review. And if you like what you've read, taking the time to favorite and/or follow really helps me out. You can also find me on tumblr (electronicyarn) if you want to send me a message or be notified of updates.